Police coming to terms with cuts

Wednesday

Jun 30, 2010 at 3:15 AM

By JOHN KOZIOL

Even as the Laconia Police Commission gets ready to meet later today to discuss what to do if it is made official, city and police officials say they already have begun working to resolve a proposed $100,000 cut to the 2010-2011 police department budget.

On Monday night, the City Council, frustrated by what it saw as the police commission's failure to tow the line on a directive for new labor contracts to disallowing either a cost of living adjustment or "step" increases, voted 4-1 to reduce the proposed $4.5 million police budget to $4.4 million.

The rationale for the action, explained Ward 3 Councilor Henry Lipman, is that, by agreeing to a one-year contract with the Laconia Police Officers Association, the police commission effectively nullified side agreements the city had with the unions representing public works and City Hall employees. Both of the latter unions had foresworn COLAs as well as step raises — which are given for length of service, advanced degrees or, in the case of the police department, merit — but only if all four municipal unions — police and fire, too — did the same.

Several weeks earlier, all of the school district unions agreed to an across-the-board wage freeze.

The tentative contract between the police commission and the LPOA, which has yet to be ratified by the union membership, violated the deal with the other two unions and, as a result, the council determined on Monday, the city would have to give step raises to all the city unions. The money to do that had to come from somewhere, Lipman said, and the council decided to take it out of the police department budget.

Lipman, chair of the council's finance committee, told his colleagues on Monday that his resolution to cut the police budget was intended to get the discussion going on the police contract and the departmental budget. On Tuesday, he reported that both things happened during a meeting with Police Chief Mike Moyer.

"I think we've got a good police department," said Lipman. "In ordinary times, their request would certainly be fair and reasonable, but the economy is really hitting the taxpayers in a very challenging way."

Going into the 2010-2011 budget process, the council made it clear that it wanted to hold the line on tax increases.

On Monday, the council gave a first reading to a $58.7 million appropriation that includes the city and school budgets as well as other items. If adopted without changes, and assuming the value of all property in Laconia stayed the same at around $2.1 billion, the tax rate would remain at $18.04 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, while the amount to be raised by taxation would be nearly identical, at about $38 million.

The council, under the City Charter, has until July 27 to adopt a municipal budget or the budget introduced earlier this year by the city manager will go into effect. Lipman said there is still time between now and that deadline to work out an arrangement on the police budget impasse.

"What I'm hoping is that we can have a community of shared sacrifice to deal with a very challenging time for the taxpayers of Laconia. Many taxpayers are losing benefits, losing jobs and taking pay cuts," said Lipman, and the council is "trying to give a break to taxpayers with a zero or less increase in the amount to be raised by taxes."

Lipman recognized the fact that, in past years, the LPOA has been the first union to come to terms with the city and he also conceded that, while common knowledge, the council never explicitly told the police department this year that it did not want to see the step increases in the LPOA contract.

Under the City Charter, the police commission, not the city council, negotiates the terms of employment with the LPOA, but the council has to subsequently ratify the pact. Additionally, as it demonstrated on Monday, the council has the ultimate power over all municipal budgets and can make amends, of a kind, in areas where it does not have direct control.

Some of the money that was proposed to be cut from the police budget will likely be restored, although Lipman on Tuesday said he was not sure what the exact mechanism would be.

"I'm optimistic that we're communicating and trying to work this through," said Lipman.

Moyer characterized his hour-long meeting with Lipman on Tuesday as "positive" and confirmed that the aim of the dialogue is "to have some sort of positive outcome for the good of the city, the good of everybody."

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